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News Dec 21

The runner up in the Lebreton flats re-development says the ncc has to negotiate a deal with the group now.

In a statement Devcore quoted the request for proposals which says in part, if negotiations with the winner breaks off the NCC has the legal obligation to enter into negotiations with the second place finisher.

While the mayor, Jim Watson, says there should be another request for proposals to develop the land, Devcore says it doesn’t believe the NCC can take that approach without first giving them a chance to re-bid.

If that fails it goes back to an open bid.

Devcore said it expects to hear a decision from the NCC’s board of directors at its meeting on January 19th.

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The government has released a list of proposed rules for edible cannabis products in Canada as it prepares to add them to the list of legal pot products by next fall.

The draft regulations propose a set of hard caps on the amount of THC — the active ingredient in pot — that could be in any package.

Restrictions would be placed on ingredients that would make edible cannabis more appealing to children, such as sweeteners, or adding ingredients like nicotine that could encourage consumption.

Manufacturers would also be prohibited from making any claims about health benefits or nutrition on their labels.

Edibles will legal in Canada by next October 17th.

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This is the last day to cross the Ottawa River on the Quyon ferry.

The ferry will operate on a shortened schedule.

Usually it crosses until 11 at night, but for this last day of operation for winter the last ferry will leave at 8.

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Indigenous leaders are celebrating after a remote First Nation in northwestern Ontario was connected to the province’s power grid.

Pikangikum First nation is the first of 17 remote communities that will be connected to Ontario’s power grid under a 1.6-billion-dollar expansion project.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler calls it an “enormous achievement” for the community, which is more than 200 kilometres north of Kenora.

Members of Pikangikum marked the occasion by lighting a community Christmas tree.

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An Edmonton judge is expected to rule today on Omar Khadr’s request for relaxed bail conditions.

The former Guantanamo Bay prisoner wants to be able to travel to Toronto more easily to visit his family, he wants a Canadian passport to make a Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, and he wants unsupervised conversations with his sister.

The 32-year-old Khadr remains on bail awaiting an appeal of a war-crime conviction rendered by a U-S military commission.

His lawyer Nathan Whitling says his client has lived quietly for years, following bail conditions to the letter and poses no threat, and says it’s unfair that Khadr’s life remains restricted by a stalled American court process with no end in sight.

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A senior official with Huawei Canada says if the company used its role in a next-generation 5-G wireless network to conduct espionage on behalf of Beijing, the fallout would be catastrophic.

Scott Bradley, Canadian vice-president of corporate affairs for Huawei, says critics wary of the Chinese tech firm should think rationally about the notion it would risk tens of billions of dollars by engaging in illicit activity for spymasters.

The comments come as Ottawa weighs Huawei’s possible participation in a 5-G wireless system that will allow Canadians to do more on cellphones and other mobile internet-connected devices, at vastly greater speeds.

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U-S officials have indicted two alleged Chinese hackers, accused of carrying out an extensive campaign on behalf of Beijing’s main intelligence agency.

The U-S says the cyber-espionage campaign was intended to steal trade secrets and other information from American government agencies and “a who’s who” of major corporations in the U-S, Canada and several other nations.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the Canadian government was made aware of the alleged hacking of Canadian companies two years ago — and says while some companies were compromised, government computer networks were not.

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Operations are back to normal for Canada Post less than four weeks after its postal workers were legislated back to work, ending five weeks of rotating strikes.

The Crown corporation says it is restoring its delivery service guarantees nationwide, now that its Vancouver operations have also caught up on a backlog of parcels.

Efforts to mediate an end to the labour dispute under the legislation failed on Tuesday, with arbitrator Elizabeth MacPherson declaring Canada Post and CUP-W too far apart to continue negotiating.

Both sides will begin an arbitration process next month that would result in a contract being imposed.

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The U-S federal government is heading toward a partial shutdown at midnight tonight over President Donald Trump’s quest for border-wall funds.

The Senate is being recalled to consider a government-funding package approved by House Republicans that includes the 5.7-billion dollars Trump wants for the border with Mexico, but it will likely be rejected.

Senators already passed their own bill with border-security money, but no wall funds.

More than 800-thousand federal workers will be facing furloughs or forced to work without pay.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis resigned Thursday after clashing with President Donald Trump over the abrupt withdrawal of U-S troops from Syria and after two years of deep disagreements over his sometimes sharply changing policies.

Mattis will leave by late February.

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A day after U-S President Trump unilaterally announced he’ll be pulling American troops out of Syria, anonymous U-S officials say the Pentagon is developing plans to withdraw up to half of the 14-thousand American troops serving in Afghanistan.

It would mark a sharp change in the Trump Administration’s policy aimed at forcing the Taliban into peace talks after 17 years of war.

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Pope Francis is vowing that the Catholic Church will “never again” cover up clergy sexual abuse, and he is demanding that priests who have raped and molested children turn themselves in.

The pontiff today dedicated his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy to abuse — evidence that a year of devastating revelations has shaken his papacy and caused a crisis of confidence in the Catholic hierarchy.

Pope Francis acknowledged that the church in the past had failed to treat the problem seriously.

But he vowed that going forward, it would never cover up or dismiss cases again and would “spare no effort” to find justice for pedophiles.

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Flights resumed at London’s Gatwick Airport this morning after drones sparked about 36 hours of travel chaos including the shutdown of the airfield, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded or delayed during the busy holiday season.

The airport says Gatwick’s runway is “now available and aircraft are arriving and departing,” though it expects what it calls “knock-on delays and cancellations.”

The prospect of a deadly collision between industrial-grade drones and an airliner led authorities to stop all flights in and out of Gatwick on Wednesday night and through all of Thursday.